


Dreamcatcher

by Mademoisellesnowflake



Series: Catching Dreams & Recreating Broken Bonds [2]
Category: TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms
Genre: Elrond has a pretty bad relationship with his parents, Elrond's still having nightmares, Eärendil tries to help, F/M, It's still very late at night, Lots of comfort in weird places, dystopian au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-30
Updated: 2016-04-30
Packaged: 2018-06-05 13:34:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6706387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mademoisellesnowflake/pseuds/Mademoisellesnowflake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elrond is still having weird dreams and he hasn't talked about them to anyone. One night the dreams become too much and he turns to his father for help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dreamcatcher

Elros had a weird taste in souvenirs.

He had given Elrond a small decoration that the natives of the northern America called “dream catchers”. It was so painfully obvious that Elros was worrying about Elrond that Elrond had needed to hug that obvious brother of his. As instructed, Elrond had placed the decoration near the head of Celebrían and his bed.

It wasn’t really helping.                         

Elrond was sitting on the edge of his side of the bed, his head buried in his palms, trying to steady his shaking form. He hadn’t kept his promise to Elros and had kept silent about his dreams and continued his work at the hospital like always. Some of his co-workers, especially Celebrían’s father, had noticed that he had somehow “slowed down” and asked if he was alright. (He of course said that he was alright. It was simple insomnia, no one had ever died of it before.)

Well, simple insomnia didn’t really include seeing your daughter, all grown up, kneeling in front of you while you were wide awake. It didn’t include sharp pains in your chest while seeing hazy images of the people you love leaving you.

 _I’m going to need an exorcist_ , Elrond thought suddenly. A stupid thought it was. Exorcists were something that had existed before the Great War. No one believed in ghosts anymore.

“Who are you?” Elrond whispered shakily to the grown image of Arwen. “I know you can hear me. Please tell me what is happening to me.”

“I think that I’m not from your world”, the image said with a sad smile. “First I thought that you were the image of my father but it seems that you’re younger… What are you called?”

“Elrond”, he whispered. “Are you Arwen?”

“Yes”, the image – Arwen – said with the same sad smile. “It seems that you live in a parallel universe after all… I had hoped there had been a way to relay my message to my father but it seems I must give it to Legolas in the end…”

“What had you meant to tell?” Elrond asked.

“I wanted him to know that I truly have been happy”, Arwen explained and sat next to Elrond. “You see, my father sailed away to the Undying Lands where the elves eventually all go. However, I chose to become mortal in order to marry the man I love… I just really hope my father doesn’t worry about me…”

“Your father must be quite a worrier”, Elrond almost laughed.

“Oh, he is”, Arwen’s image told. “He’s a healer and he’s always worrying about his patients. Whether it’s a hobbit or a dwarf or an elf. He always forgets himself in the process and ends up blaming himself a lot.”

“I probably am a bit similar”, Elrond sighed. “I mean, I’m a doctor – it’s probably quite similar to your healers – and I made a big mistake not long time ago…”

“Have you talked about it to anyone?” Arwen’s image asked. “It’s important that you express your feelings… My father rarely did so with negative feelings and he had a terrible breakdown when mother had to sail… I really feared he’d die of grief back then…”

“You can die of grief?” Elrond asked.

“Yes”, the image whispered. “That’s why you must speak of your feelings…” Then she suddenly turned to face Elrond and placed her ghostly hands on Elrond’s cheeks. “I must leave soon. My husband has grown old and weary so I cannot be there to listen to you even though I wish I could. I know there are people who care about you and your problems. Talk to someone and they will listen. They will show you that you are valuable to them.”

Then the image hugged Elrond and slowly started fading away. She smiled at Elrond as he tried to reach out to her, only to find that his hand went right through her.

It was really weird to see an image of your daughter, all grown up, fading away in front of your eyes.

Elrond stood up and strode to the kitchen. It was probably madness to even try to call anyone when it was so late but he couldn’t care. Arwen’s image had been so very right; Elrond _needed_ to talk about his feelings to someone. He got to the video phone and his hand hovered over the keyboard. Would anyone actually be awake at this hour? Ereinion who would always answer to Elrond’s calls even at night was dead because of Elrond’s mistake, Elros was celebrating his return from the destroyed continent with his friends and Elrond would never dare to disturb Erestor or Glorfindel – or even his father-in-law whom he had a great relationship with – at night with his own worries.

His father would be awake.

Eärendil was always suffering from terrible jet lags after being too far away. To be honest, sometimes he didn’t even care what time it was, especially if he wanted to complete something he was doing. Elrond wasn’t sure whether Eärendil would answer but he had to try.

He dialled his parents’ number. If Eärendil wasn’t awake or interested, it would better to get this done right away. In the past Elrond had always felt his parents were somehow distant. Even though they’d been holding him on their laps, he’d still feel like they were far away like stars in the sky. In their youth Elros had been the first one to rebel and leave their parents but they still reconciled very soon. Elrond’s rebellion had been quieter, he had only given his parents angry looks, especially when they had started leaving him all alone in the house and never really talking to him.

Only once he had actually dared to ask his parents whether they’d actually cared for him or not. The look on Eärendil’s face had been so crushed that Elrond had run away. He had returned the next day and no one had brought up the subject again. Elrond still sometimes remembered the crushed look on Eärendil’s face and always for a moment Elrond felt like he needed to call his father and apologise.

One more beep and Elrond would shut the line because surely Eärendil was sleeping and would drowsily call back the following morning. One more beep and Elrond would return to bed without really being able to sleep. One more –

*Beep*

“Hello?” Eärendil’s drowsy voice asked. “I must have dozed off while completing the reports… Who is it? I really hope you’re not my boss because I’ll have to hang up on you if you are….”

“It’s just me”, Elrond whispered with a small smile spreading out on his face. “It’s just Elrond, father. I doubt your boss would call you in the middle of the night…”

“Elrond?” Eärendil asked with a certain sense of disbelief in his voice. “Is something wrong? You don’t usually call this late at night, usually it’s always Elros who does. Has there been some trouble?”

“Uh…” Elrond began. He actually hadn’t expected to get this far in their conversation. “I’ve been having weird dreams lately and I kind of needed to talk… It’s not too late, is it? I mean, you always stay up so late when you get back home from faraway places.”

“I never realised that you were so observant”, Eärendil said with surprise in his voice. “And to be honest, it’s my fault for never listening to you…”

Elrond frowned. If this was supposed to become an uncomfortable father-son talk, he’d rather stop his father now.

“Um… Could we not talk about that now?” Elrond asked with discomfort quite clear on his face. “I was wondering if you had any idea what my dreams could mean.”

“I’m not the best one to help in that”, Eärendil mumbled. “If you have time, you could talk to those psychiatrists? They’d probably be able to help you better…”

“They _wouldn’t_ ”, Elrond hissed. “They’d just say that I’m burdened by Ereinion dying because of my mistake and that I’ve created another world in my dreams to deny the fact. Problem is that Ereinion died in that world too. The psychiatrists can’t help me, father… I don’t want to be labelled as crazy.”

“Mistake?” Eärendil asked. “The news and Celeborn told me that it was Ereinion’s heart failing due to the shock and blood loss caused by his vehicle crashing. It couldn’t have been your mistake. You know there is no known cure for heart failure. Without you he would have died instantly. It wasn’t your fault.”

“But –” Elrond began, only to be silenced by Eärendil holding up his hand.

“Elrond. You’re one of the best doctors in the country”, Eärendil said. “Ereinion is the only patient whom you’ve ever lost. You can’t blame yourself for something that you couldn’t have prevented.”

“I could have prevented it”, Elrond protested. “If I had managed to stop him from bleeding just a moment sooner, he might not have gone into shock and later died. If I had gotten us both out of the wreck just a bit sooner –”

“Wait a minute, you were in the crash too?” Eärendil asked, shock clear on his face. “You were in the crash and still managed to keep Ereinion alive that long?”

“If I hadn’t been there, he would never have gotten any help”, Elrond told with a frown. “Or at least the help wouldn’t have gotten there in time.”

“Elrond”, Eärendil sighed. “There’s no way you could have survived the crash and seeing Ereinion die without some kind of trauma. The dreams you have may be entirely unrelated but please do not act like you’re not feeling burdened and simply terrible because of Ereinion’s death. It will just make you feel worse and eventually crush you.”

Elrond frowned at Eärendil’s comment. He wasn’t feeling like he’d be crushed or anything like that. He just needed to sleep and talk about the stupid dreams that were making sleeping so hard. In the end the conversation had gone nowhere as Elrond had expected.

“Now tell me about those dreams”, Eärendil said. “Elros told me he had seen some weird dreams too. Yours could be related to his.”

“Well… They take place in another world”, Elrond began. “And it seems that Elros was my twin there too… But he died thousands of years before I even got children… And in one dream Celebrían had been badly hurt and she had to leave… And in one you and mother both left… and you became a star in the sky… I think uncle Maedhros was there and told me and Elros that you were sailing the skies in a swan-shaped ship.”

“A star in the sky?” Eärendil asked. “Was the star called Star of Eärendil?”

“Yes”, Elrond whispered. “How do you know?”

“Elros told me about a similar dream”, Eärendil simply answered and leaned over to pick up a thick book. “And I found some books and some of them mention a character called Elrond quite a lot… I don’t know how but it seems that the world in which the events of this books happen has somehow found a way to this world.”

“I’d rather have it not get into my head”, Elrond whispered. Eärendil looked at his son while the latter continued: “The world could get into literally any other person’s head so why was it me? I have already enough to think about with Ereinion gone and my patients getting worse… I don’t have time for other worlds too… There's my children, they need me being sane... I really can’t think of any other worlds…”

“Are you sure you don’t want to talk about Ereinion?” Eärendil asked with sadness etched to his voice. “If you feel like the time is too late now, I can come over tomorrow and we can talk even more.”

“I just feel weird”, Elrond mumbled. “Ereinion has been there for almost all my life, we’ve always been friends but now he just suddenly doesn’t exist anymore… It feels so weird. I really just want him to burst here through the door and I also want to understand that he won’t… I don’t know what to do now when I can’t call him in the middle of the night…”

“It will always take time to understand things like that”, Eärendil told with a reassuring smile on his face. “You should go sleep, Elrond. I’ll come over tomorrow and we can talk more.”

Elrond nodded quietly. Only then did he realise how cold he felt and how tired he was. He smiled at himself and walked to the menu of the video phone. He looked at his father, about to wish him goodnight, only to realise that the world swam in his eyes.

Before he could say anything, the world went black.

***

“Elrond! Wake up, Elrond, for God’s sake!”

Elrond felt that someone was shaking him. Slowly he managed to open his eyes and he saw Celebrían’s worried face hovering over his. She cupped her hand over Elrond’s cheek and placed the other on his forehead.

“You don’t seem to be having fever”, Celebrían whispered. Elrond frowned at the comment and looked at his wife with a questioning look. “You fainted. Eärendil tried to wake you but when he realised you wouldn’t wake with him only calling to you, he called my hand phone.”

Celebrían embraced Elrond and easily helped him into a sitting position all while still holding Elrond.

“Please never do that to me again”, Celebrían whispered. “You never talked about those dreams, did you? I should have forced them out of you so you could have slept…”

“It isn’t your fault”, Elrond told while rubbing Celebrían’s back. “I should have talked to someone…”

Celebrían planted a kiss on Elrond’s cheek and if possible, hugged him even tighter, almost like she was afraid of him disappearing if she let go. Elrond sighed and leaned his head on Celebrían’s shoulder.

“We should go sleep”, Elrond whispered tiredly. “Father is coming over tomorrow and things will hopefully be easier…”

Celebrían nodded but didn’t let go of Elrond. She slid her hand into his and stood up, pulling Elrond with her.

“Please, the next time you can’t sleep, talk to me”, she whispered. “I don’t want to lose you because you overestimate yourself.”

“I promise”, Elrond said quietly and kissed Celebrían’s cheek while she led the way to their bedroom.

The two got to bed soon enough and cuddled nearer each other. Celebrían noted how Elrond was freezing and tried to make the latter take more quilts. Elrond smiled weakly and shook his head, planting a kiss on Celebrían’s forehead.

“I love you”, Elrond whispered and for the first time in over a month he felt a bit better.

The next time he wouldn’t keep secrets from Celebrían. In fact, it would be stupid, knowing she knew her husband the best in the mismatched family.

He really loved Celebrían.

**Author's Note:**

> Celebrían is a life-saver isn't she? If you have thoughts please tell me ´v`
> 
> I also have to mention that I'm partially using this fic to sort out some of my own thoughts about my family & death due to my family being really hard to deal with and a person in my family dying recently so I'm sorry if Elrond isn't how you'd expect him to be...


End file.
